Method for displaying microarray information

ABSTRACT

A method for displaying microarray information by which unknown but useful information is extracted from a mass amount of sample information obtained with microarrays. Luminescent intensity information of sample spots obtained with the microarrays is standardized for each microarray and displayed as a graph as a difference from the standardized luminescent intensity of a sample spot of interest. Accordingly, information can be compared without being influenced by a difference of experiment status between the microarrays or a difference of physical properties between the samples. A three-dimensional graph is displayed by sorting the set of samples and the set of microarrays to which the sample spots belong, under predetermined conditions, and assigning the set of sorted samples and the set of sorted microarrays to X-axis and Y-axis, and the accumulated luminescence intensity to Z-axis.

This application claims priority to PCT application Ser. No.PCT/JP00/04840, filed Jul. 19, 2000, and Japanese Application Serial No.212326/1999, filed Jul. 27, 1999.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to processing of microarray experimentdata, particularly, to a method for visually displaying usefulmicroarray information.

BACKGROUND ART

Conventionally, as a method for obtaining useful information from dataresulting from experiments using microarrays (also referred to asbiochips), the following methods are known. Specifically, a method inwhich sample spots extracted and sorted under specific conditions aredisplayed as an image of pixels representing values standardized foreach microarray, and a method in which sample spots are classified basedon a statistical analysis (a clustering analysis) of luminescentintensity data of the sample spots between multiple microarrays.

Although conventional methods are effective in providing intuitiveinformation via an image of a collection of numerous samples immobilizedon microarrays or in providing statistical information by a clusteringanalysis, they are not always effective in finding out information thatis important in terms of molecular biology, which is present in a scarceamount buried in the huge amount of microarray experiment information.It has not been long since microarrays have begun to be used inmolecular biological experiments, and in order to elucidate factsunanticipated by users from the microarray information, there is a needof obtaining means for displaying information from various points ofview.

The objective of the present invention is to realize a user interfacewhich is capable of effectively processing a huge amount of microarrayinformation and displaying it as a graph, to achieve a system capable ofdiscovering scarce but important information in terms of molecularbiology buried in the huge amount of microarray information.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is provided with: a “microarray primary database”for accumulating information of spots immobilized on microarrays andluminescent intensity data of the numerous sample spots obtained by amicroarray analysis; a “micorarray data extracting/processing program”for extracting, under specific conditions, a data set including aplurality of samples and processing it for displaying a graph; a“micorarray information display program” for displaying athree-dimensional graph where the sample spots and the microarrayssorted under various conditions are assigned to X- and Y-axes andluminescent intensities to Z-axis; a method for not missing any signalsin the huge amount of information in displaying the three-dimensionalgraph produced by the microarray information display program; and acache processing software for a fast display of the information.

The luminescent intensity information of the sample spots obtained withthe microarrays is standardized for each microarray. Then, thedifferences of the standardized luminescent intensities of the samplespots from a standardized luminescent intensity of a sample spot ofinterest are displayed as a graph. Accordingly, information can becompared without being biased by a difference between the microarrays(biochips) caused by experimental errors or a difference between samplescaused by physical properties. Selection of parameters for displayingwithout missing any important information in the data or for displayinginformation from various points of view can be realized with a userinterface.

A method of the present invention for displaying microarray informationby which information of accumulated luminescent intensities of numeroussample spots obtained by a microarray analysis is displayed, comprisesthe steps of: selecting a set of samples as subjects of a test;acquiring accumulated luminescent intensities of the sample spots oneach of microarrays, the sample spot corresponding to the set ofsamples; sorting the set of samples and the set of microarrays to whichthe sample spots belong, under predetermined conditions; and displayinga three-dimensional graph by assigning the set of sorted samples and theset of sorted microarrays to X-axis and Y-axis, and the accumulatedluminescent intensities to Z-axis.

Preferably, the accumulated luminescent intensities are based onstandardized luminescent intensities which have undergone a firststandardization using a control spot located on each microarray for apurpose of eliminating experimental errors within the microarray towhich the sample spot belongs, and a second standardization using astandard marker spot located on each microarray for the purpose ofeliminating experiment errors between the microarrays and for thepurpose of equalizing an intentionally adjusted range of luminescentintensities.

Preferably, the standardized accumulated luminescent intensities haveundergone, in addition to the first and second standardizations, a thirdstandardization in view of the luminescent intensity ranges between thesamples based on the accumulated luminescent intensities of the samplespots belonging to the same sample.

In displaying microarray information, it is advantageous that the set ofsamples are sorted according to their accumulated luminescentintensities on a specific microarray. In addition, it is advantageousthat after the set of samples are sorted according to their accumulatedluminescent intensities on a specific microarray, the set of microarraysare sorted according to a total difference of the accumulatedluminescent intensities of their samples from that of the specificmicorarray. Alternatively, it is advantageous that the set ofmicroarrays are sorted according to an accumulated luminescent intensityof a specific sample. In addition, it is also advantageous that afterthe set of microarrays are sorted according to an accumulatedluminescent intensity of a specific sample, the set of samples aresorted according to a total difference of the accumulated luminescentintensities on the microarrays from that of the specific sample. Ineither case, the accumulated luminescent intensities are preferablystandardized by the first, second or third method. The total differencemay be a standard deviation or a mean deviation of the accumulatedluminescent intensities.

Furthermore, it is also advantageous that a two-dimensional graph isdisplayed by slicing out a cross-sectional plane from thethree-dimensional graph displayed by the method for displayingmicroarray information.

According to the present invention, meaningful information can visuallybe obtained from luminescent intensity information obtained withmicroarrays. Even an extremely small signal included in the mass amountof information can be displayed without being missed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1(a) to 1(c) are illustrations showing exemplary microarrays,where FIG. 1(a) is a schematic view showing a step of producing themicroarray; FIG. 1(b) is a schematic plan view of the producedmicroarrays; and FIG. 1(c) is a schematic view showing the microarrayafter a reaction such as a hybridization reaction.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a system for displaying microarrayinformation according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing exemplary data structures of a microarrayprimary database.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a process for producing data for displaying agraph.

FIG. 5 shows diagrams illustrating a general idea of an example ofproducing a three-dimensional graph.

FIG. 6 shows exemplary two-dimensional graphs obtained by slicing thethree-dimensional graph.

FIG. 7 is a view showing an exemplary interface for a user to performsettings to display a graph.

FIGS. 8(a) and 8(b) are diagrams showing an exemplary comparison ofexpression profiles by using a three-dimensional graph display of theinvention.

BEST MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

The present invention will be described in more details with referenceto the accompanying drawings.

FIGS. 1(a) to 1(c) are illustrations showing exemplary microarrays. FIG.1(a) is a view schematically showing a step of producing a microarray;FIG. 1(b) is a schematic plan view of the produced microarrays; and FIG.1(c) is a schematic view showing the microarray after a reaction such asa hybridization reaction.

The microarray 10 as schematically shown in FIG. 1(a) is obtained byhigh-densely spotting and immobilizing prepared samples 12 a, 12 b, 12c, . . . such as various kinds of cDNAs, oligonucleotides or proteins ona carrier 11 such as a glass plate with a microarray producingapparatus. The samples immobilized on the microarray 10 are referred toas sample spots 16. As shown in FIG. 1(b), a plurality of microarrays 10having the same kinds of samples immobilized thereon are produced toperform experiments under different conditions on the respectivemicroarrays. Herein, experiments refer to hybridization experimentsusing various color-labeled complementary DNAS/RNAs present in unknownproportions as experiment subjects for cDNA or oligonucleotidemicroarrays, or antigen-antibody reaction experiments using variouscolor-labeled antigens/antibodies present in unknown proportions asexperiment subjects for protein microarrays. These experiments areconducted to find out the presence or absence of a color-labeledmolecule under different conditions via a specific interaction with aspecific sample molecule immobilized on the microarrays.

As shown in FIG. 1(c), after the experiments, each sample spot on themicroarray 10, depending on a subject of the experiment, may either be aspot 19 that interacted with a color-labeled molecule or a spot 18 thatdid not interact with the color-labeled molecule. The spots 19 thatunderwent the interaction can further be grouped as spots thatinteracted with a large amount of the color-labeled molecule or spotsthat interacted with a little amount of the color-labeled molecule. Theluminescent intensity of each sample spot on the microarray 10 is readwith a microarray reader and numerically expressed as an accumulatedvalue of the luminescent intensities on each spot region, to be used asa measurement value for processing information.

For experiments using the microarrays 10, a particular spot is providedon each microarray 10 for the purpose of adjusting errors in themeasurement values resulting from a production error of the microarrays10 or the sample spots 16 in each experiment, a preparation error of theexperiment subjects or an error of experiment conditions. Specifically,a typical sample is selected, prepared like other samples but withoutcolor-labeling as a control 14 and spotted, thereby producing a controlspot 17. In addition, a sample that is known to interact in the samemanner with one of the experiment subject molecules in every experimentsis selected, prepared like other samples as a standard marker 13 andspotted, thereby producing a standard marker spot 15. The luminescentintensities of these particular spots 15 and 17 are also read with themicroarray reader like those of other sample spots 16 and numerated asaccumulated values of the luminescent intensities on the respective spotregions, to be used as measurement values for processing information.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a system fordisplaying microarray information according to one embodiment of thepresent invention.

In producing the microarray 10, a microarray producing apparatus 21gives, to a microarray primary database 23, information as to whichsample, control or standard marker has been spotted at which coordinateson the microarray 10. Then, a microarray reader 22 reads luminescentintensities of the spots present on the microarray after the experiment.The obtained measurement values are stored in the microarray primarydatabase 23. The measurement value of the luminescent intensities ofeach spot is stored in the microarray primary database 23 while beingcollated with and correlated to the pre-stored coordinates informationof the sample spots, the control spot or the standard marker spot on themicroarray.

A microarray data extracting/processing program 24 extracts, from themicroarray primary database 23, data of sample spots suitable for theconditions set as microarray data extracting/processing parameters 27and processes that data according to the conditions set via a graphdisplaying parameter setting interface 28.

A microarray graph displaying program 26 acquires the data of samplespots processed by the microarray data extracting/processing program 24according to the settings of the graph displaying parameter settinginterface 28 and generates a graph. The microarray graph displayingprogram 26 acquires the processed data of the sample spots via a displaydata cache 25. In other words, the processed sample spot data istemporarily accumulated in the display data cache 25. When themicroarray graph displaying program 26 demands for the processed samplespot data, data is provided without needing the microarray dataextracting/processing program 24. The capacity of the display data cache25 to accumulate the data can be set by the user. When the cache isfull, data which has been stored in the cache for the longest periodsince the last demand by the microarray graph displaying program 26 isabandoned to store the latest data in the cache.

The microarray data extracting/processing parameters 27 are produced ina graph displaying parameter setting interface 28. Conditions fordisplaying a graph can be altered by inputting setting values via thegraph displaying parameter setting interface 28 while confirming thegraph displayed by the microarray graph displaying program 26. In otherwords, data of sample spots can be processed on demand, expressed as agraph and confirmed.

FIG. 3 is a illustration showing exemplary data structure of themicroarray primary database 23 shown in FIG. 2. This data structure areonly shown as an example, and data structures different from that shownin FIG. 3 can also be employed.

As the data structure for storing various kinds of data for processingmicroarray information, (a) microarray set information, (b) sample setinformation, (c) microarray master information, (d) sample set entryinformation, (e) sample spot information and (f) sample masterinformation are defined. In order to refer to the data records definingeach data structure, unique data record IDs 31 to 36 are providedthrough the entire system as data record identifiers.

The information of the samples to be spotted on the microarray is storedin the database as data records of the sample master information shownin FIG. 3(f). For samples that are known to be present as entries in apublic database 37 of DNA sequences and primary sequences of proteins,their Accession Nos. (ACCNO.) (used as reference numerals in the publicdatabase 37) can be stored in the microarray primary database 23 as apart of the sample master information so that further details of thesamples can be acquired from the public database 37 as necessary.

The sample set information shown in FIG. 3(b) is defined as a datastructure for storing information of a collection of samples that are tobe spotted on the microarrays 10 for microarray production by themicroarray producing apparatus 21. The sample set information includesthe molecular types and descriptions of the sample collection.

Information of these samples (as constituent elements of the samplecollection) are stored as data records (whose number corresponds to thenumber of elements) defined as the sample set entry information shown inFIG. 3(d) while correlating their data record IDs to the data records ofthe sample set information shown in FIG. 3(b) and to the data records ofthe sample master information shown in FIG. 3(f).

In view of performing a series of microarray experiments, the microarrayproducing apparatus produces a plurality of microarrays having the samesample set. The microarray set information shown in FIG. 3(a) is definedas a data structure for storing information of the collection ofmicroarrays (the microarray set) while correlating their data record IDsto the sample set employed for the microarray set. The microarray setinformation further includes descriptions of the microarray set.

The microarray master information shown in FIG. 3(c) is defined as adata structure for storing information relative to individualmicroarrays 10, and includes data record IDs correlating to themicroarray set they belong and information of microarray experiments.

The sample spot information shown in FIG. 3(e) is defined as a datastructure for storing measurement values of individual sample spotsresulting from the microarray experiments. The data records of thesample spot information are stored with data record IDs correlating tothe data records of the microarray master information they belong and tothe data records of the sample set entry information. The data recordsof the sample information also includes information of the physicalpositions of the sample spot regions on the microarray and accumulatedluminescent intensities on the spot regions obtained with the measuringinstrument.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a process in the system for displayingmicroarray information, for producing data for displaying a graph. Steps41 to 45 in FIG. 4 are performed by the microarray dataextracting/processing program 24 shown in FIG. 2, and steps 46 and 47are performed by the microarray graph displaying program 26 shown inFIG. 2.

At Step 41, the microarray data extracting/processing program 24 firstselects a set of samples as the subjects of the test. The sample set isselected from the data records of the sample set information in themicroarray primary database 23. Next, at Step 42, information of samplespots corresponding to the samples included in the sample set isacquired as the data records of the sample spot information in themicroarray primary database 23. The data records of the sample spotinformation are acquired, with reference to the data record IDs, inassociation with the data entries of the sample set information via thedata records of the sample set entry information in the microarrayprimary database 23.

Herein, standardized accumulated luminescent intensities are obtainedbased on an actual value calculation. At Step 43, a first step ofstandardization is carried out for each sample spot for the purpose ofeliminating experimental errors on individual microarrays. Specifically,the accumulated luminescent intensity of the control spot on themicroarray is subtracted from the accumulated luminescent intensity ofeach sample spot, thereby obtaining individual-chip standardizedaccumulated luminescent intensities.

Next, a second step of standardization is carried out at Step 44 for thepurpose of eliminating experimental errors between the microarrays andequalizing intentionally adjusted luminescent intensity ranges. For eachsample spot, an individual-chip standardized accumulated luminescentintensity of an accumulated luminescent intensity of the standard markerspot on the belonging microarray is acquired and used for dividing theindividual-chip standardized accumulated luminescent intensity of eachsample spot, thereby obtaining inter-chip standardized accumulatedluminescent intensities.

A third step of standardization is carried out as an option at Step 45for the purpose of eliminating a difference of the luminescentintensities between the samples. The inter-chip standardized accumulatedluminescent intensities of the sample spots are collected for each ofthe sample they belong, from which a top value is obtained and used todivide the inter-chip standardized accumulated luminescent intensitiesof the collected sample spots belonging to the same sample, therebyobtaining inter-sample standardized accumulated luminescent intensities.

The standardized accumulated luminescent intensities of the generatedsample spots are sent to the microarray graph displaying program 26 viathe display data cache 25. At Step 46, the microarray graph displayingprogram 26 collects and sorts the sample spots for each microarray. Thecollected sample spots are sorted such that the orders of the samplesare the same. The microarrays may be sorted based on, for example, typesof experiments. The samples may be sorted based on, for example, astandard deviation of the standardized accumulated luminescentintensities. Proceeding to Step 47, a graph is displayed based on thedata of the standardized and sorted sample spots.

FIG. 5 shows diagrams illustrating a general idea of thethree-dimensional graph displayed at Step 47 in FIG. 4. The microarraysand the samples sorted by the microarray graph displaying program 26 areplotted along the X-axis 52 or the Y-axis 53 in the three-dimensionalgraph 51. The standardized accumulated luminescent intensitiescalculated by the microarray data extracting/processing program 24 areplotted along the Z-axis 54. The microarrays and the samples range from1 to the number of the elements. The standardized accumulatedluminescent intensities range from 0 to 1.0000.

Coordinates of each sample spot are obtained and plotted on thethree-dimensional graph based on the microarray, the sample and thestandardized accumulated luminescent intensity of the sample spot. Forplotting the sample spot coordinates, dots are sketched at thecoordinates or a line is drawn between the coordinates where theZ-values are set to 0. The color of the dots or line is determinedaccording to the Z-values of the sample spot coordinates, based on thesettings on the three-dimensional graph display user interface whichwill be described later. When a range of the coordinate values on theZ-axis of the three-dimensional graph display is set with upper/lowerlimits on the three-dimensional graph display user interface, dots or aline that exceeds the limited range is not plotted. The resolutions ofthe X- and Y-axes can be selected. When the number of elements formingthe X- or Y-axis exceeds the resolution, a plurality of elements arespotted as a single element on the graph. In this case, the Z-value ofthe plurality of elements may be any one of the top, bottom or averagevalue. In addition, lines may optionally be drawn between the top andbottom values upon linear plotting.

In order to prevent the display of the three-dimensional graph frombeing unclear due to the overlapping of the information forming thegraph, the three-dimensional graph is made rotatable around each of theX-, Y- and Z-axes. Furthermore, colors may be changed, on thethree-dimensional setting user interface, according to the function ofre-sketching a difference within particular X- and Y-axes ranges as thegraph ranges and according to the values of the Z-axis, whereby acharacteristic sample spot information can readily be confirmed.

As shown in FIG. 6, a two-dimensional graph 56 obtained by slicing thethree-dimensional graph with respect to the X-axis and a two-dimensionalgraph 57 obtained by slicing the three-dimensional graph with respect tothe Y-axis are displayed for a designated sample spot.

FIG. 7 is a view showing an exemplary user interface which dynamicallyperforms the settings of the three-dimensional graph display.

Based on the settings of the items 61 to be plotted along the X- andY-axes (in the figure, X-axis represents the microarrays while theY-axis represents the samples), numbers of the elements are given in thedisplay sections 62 (in the figure, the number of elements along theX-axis is 132 while the number of elements along the Y-axis is 10240),whereby the ranges 63 for displaying the three-dimensional graph can bedetermined. A subject of the two-dimensional graph display is designatedby determining specific elements along the respective axes in boxes 64.

In the display section 65 under the user interface, individual samplespots obtained by slicing the three-dimensional graph with respect tothe Z-axis and seen in the Z-axis direction are displayed as imageinformation. The ranges of the elements forming the X- and Y-axes to bedisplayed on the three-dimensional graph can be determined in boxes 63,are displayed on the image information (66), and can be altered by usinghandles 67. Pixels forming the image information correspond to Z-axisvalues. A pixel color information interface 68 is provided for settingwhich value to be displayed with which color. In the pixel informationinterface, as an interface for converting an actual value to a color, abutton 69 for setting the minimum value to be used for color graduationand a button 70 for setting the maximum value to be used for colorgraduation are provided to produce a color list 71 for assigning colorsto the actual values within that range. The color list is a sequence ofsequential color information to which any particular number of elementscan be input. The actual values within the maximum and minimum values tobe used for color graduation are assigned to respective color entries atregular intervals or by a gamma function or by free setting. Theresolution of the screen for displaying the image information can be setby the user and is the same resolution as the three-dimensional graph.When the number of the elements exceeds the resolution, a plurality ofelements are processed as a single element. In this case, the actualvalue or Z-value is selected from the top, bottom or average value ofthe plurality of elements with a selection button 72 of the interface oron the three-dimensional graph display. Pixels of values 73 lower thanthe minimum value to be used for color graduation and pixels of values74 higher than the maximum value to be used for color graduation may beselected to be displayed as entries at the ends of the color list or maynot be displayed.

FIGS. 8(a) and 8(b) are diagrams showing an exemplary comparison ofexpression profiles by using a three-dimensional graph display of theinvention. For a collection of cDNA-library-immobilized microarrayshaving already reacted (hybridized) cDNA collection as subjects ofexperiments, inter-sample standardized accumulated luminescentintensities of the sample spots are obtained according to the procedureof the invention to display a three-dimensional graph. Samples 81 a, 82a, 83 a, . . . shown in FIG. 8(a) correspond to samples 81 b, 82 b, 83b, . . . shown in FIG. 8(b), respectively.

FIG. 8(a) is a diagram where, with respect to one designated sample (areference sample) 81, the elements of the microarray-axis (X-axis) andthe elements of the sample-axis (Y-axis) are sorted according to theluminescent intensity of the sample and according to a sum of squares ofthe difference between an inter-sample standardized accumulatedluminescent intensities of the designated sample and that of each sample(according to the value for each microarray), respectively. Based onthis three-dimensional graph, samples 82, 83, 86 and 87 which haveexpression profiles similar to that of the designated sample 81 canreadily be found. Specifically, the samples 82, 83, 86 and 87 having theexpression profiles relative to that of the selected sample 81 arerepresented by smooth curves in the three-dimensional graph. A slightlydifferent feature 88 of the sample 82 with the expression profilesimilar to that of the sample 81 can also be easily specified.

FIG. 8(b) is a diagram where the sample-axis (Y-axis) is sortedaccording to a sum of squares of a difference between a mean deviationof the inter-sample standardized accumulated luminescent intensities ofsample spots belonging to each type of sample and a mean deviation ofthe inter-sample standardized accumulated luminescent intensities of thedesignated sample 81. According to this three-dimensional graph, samples86 and 87 whose expressions are controlled under the same conditions butwith different types of expression enhancement and suppression canreadily be found.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

As described above, according to the present invention, huge amount ofsample spot information obtained by microarray experiments isstandardized so that the whole information can be processed in anequalized fashion. Therefore, data can easily be compared and can bedisplayed as graphs in various respects. As a result, rare but importantinformation can be found from the huge amount of information.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for displaying microarray informationvia a three-dimensional graph by which information of accumulatedluminescent intensities of numerous sample spots obtained by amicroarray analysis is displayed, the method comprising the steps of:selecting a set of samples as subjects of tests under differentconditions; spotting the same set of samples on each of a plurality ofmicroarrays each for performing one of the tests; acquiring accumulatedluminescent intensities of the sample spots on each of the plurality ofmicroarrays, the sample spots correspond to the same set of samples;sorting the sample spots on each of the plurality of microarrays in anidentical manner and/or the plurality of microarrays to which the samplespots belong under predetermined conditions; and displaying athree-dimensional graph by assigning the sample spots sorted in thesorting step to a first axis and the microarrays sorted in the sortingstep to a second axis, and the accumulated luminescent intensities to athird axis, wherein the first, second and third axes define thethree-dimensional graph.
 2. A method for displaying microarrayinformation according to claim 1, wherein the accumulated luminescentintensities are based on standardized luminescent intensities which haveundergone a first standardization using a control spot located on eachmicroarray for a purpose of eliminating experimental errors within themicroarray to which the sample spot belongs, and a secondstandardization using a standard marker spot located on each microarrayfor the purpose of eliminating experiment errors between the microarraysand for the purpose of equalizing an intentionally adjusted range ofluminescent intensities.
 3. A method for displaying microarrayinformation according to claim 2, wherein the standardized accumulatedluminescent intensities have undergone, in addition to the first andsecond standardizations, a third standardization in view of theluminescent intensity ranges between the samples based on theaccumulated luminescent intensities of the sample spots belonging to thesame sample.
 4. A method for displaying microarray information accordingto any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the set of samples are sortedaccording to their accumulated luminescent intensities on a specificmicroarray.
 5. A method for displaying microarray information accordingto any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the set of samples are sortedaccording to their accumulated luminescent intensities on a specificmicroarray, and then the plurality of microarrays are sorted accordingto a total difference of the accumulated luminescent intensities oftheir samples from that of the specific microarray.
 6. A method fordisplaying microarray information according to any one of claims 1 to 3,wherein the plurality of microarrays are sorted according to anaccumulated luminescent intensity of a specific sample.
 7. A method fordisplaying microarray information according to any one of claims 1 to 3,wherein the plurality of microarrays are sorted according to anaccumulated luminescent intensity of a specific sample, and then the setof samples are sorted according to a total difference of the accumulatedluminescent intensities on the microarrays from that of the specificsample.
 8. A method for displaying microarray information, wherein atwo-dimensional graph is displayed by slicing out a cross-sectionalplane from the three-dimensional graph displayed by the method fordisplaying microarray information according to any one of claims 1 to 3.